


Take Her

by orphan_account



Series: Take Her [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Death, Destiel - Freeform, Established Relationship, M/M, baby!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-23 07:59:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/619827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean's got a bum knee, his own garage, an angel for a boyfriend, and niece he absolutely dotes on. Or, at least he thinks he does until he gets an early-morning call from a police officer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Hello, Dean.”

Dean jolted awake, not surprised to find Castiel sitting on the edge of his bed, looking down at him intently.

“Hey, Cas,” he murmured, burying his face back into his pillow. Judging by the light leaking in through the window of his bedroom, the sun was only just rising, and Dean wasn’t about to let his day start this early. Cas would be there when he got up in a few hours.

“Dean,” Cas admonished, gently touching the back of Dean’s neck “You need to get out of bed.”

“What if I don’t want to?” Dean grumbled into the pillow.

“You must,” Cas replied, taking hold of Dean’s hand and gently tugging on it.

Dean flipped over, sitting up and briefly pressing his lips to Cas’s before playing with the end of his ever-loosened tie.

“Where have you been for the past few days?” Dean smiled, used to Cas disappearing for days on end. Angel business, you know.

“Heaven, where else would I be? But you really need to get up.”

Dean stopped fiddling with Cas’s tie, bringing his head up and looking Cas straight in the eye. Cas was staring at him the usual mixture of adoration and confusion, but there was something sad and apologetic in his look today. He held Dean’s gaze briefly, then looked down to the floor.

“What’s wrong? Got a job for me?” Dean groaned, hoisting himself out of bed, his bare feet touching the cold floor. He walked over to his dresser and began rummaging around for a clean shirt. He needed to do laundry soon, almost everything was dirty. 

“Not exactly. There’s nothing you can do now,” said Cas, standing up and walking over to Dean, who had finally found an old, faded t-shirt in the back of his drawer.

Dean turned around, glaring at Cas even as he pulled the shirt over this head.

“Nothing I can do now? Cas, what the-“

Before Dean could finish his sentence, the cell phone on his bedside table rang. Cas picked it up, and handed it to him.

“You need to take this,” he said simply and sadly, putting the phone in Dean’s hand, and giving it a tight squeeze before he took a step back, just barely outside Dean’s personal bubble.

Dean just stared at the angel, but flipped the phone open to answer, anyway.

“Hello?” he asked, holding the phone up to his ear with one arm and crossing the other over his chest. 

“Is this Dean Winchester?” came a man’s voice from the other end of the line. It sounded haggard and mechanical, and Dean could hear the sound of other phones ringing in the background.

“It is. Who is this, and why are you calling me so goddamn early?” 

“I’m Lieutenant Michelson from the Montgomery County Police Department. I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you this, Mr. Winchester, but…Your brother’s house, it…it burned down last night.”

Dean shot Cas a panicked look, but the angel’s eyes seemed glued to the floor. 

“Sam… Sammy’s house?” he dumbly repeated. “Is he okay? What about Helen and Jane?”

“Sir, how soon can you get here?”

“Are Sam, Helen, and Jane okay?” Dean demanded, growling into the receiver.

There was a pause at the other end of the line.

“Mr. Winchester, how soon-“

“Are Sam, Helen and Jane okay?” Dean repeated. His voice was venomous enough to make Cas actually raise his head and look at him. 

“Your niece is in critical condition at the local hospital. Mr. and Mrs. Winchester were pronounced dead on the scene.”

Dean couldn’t even respond. 

“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, sir, I-“

“I’ll be there in two hours,” said Dean, his voice nearly breaking.

“The police station is-“

“I’m not going to the damn police station. Which hospital is Janey at?”

“Mr. Winchester, we need-“

“Just tell me which damn hospital she’s at! I’ll answer all of your crap once I see Janey.”

“Holy Redeemer,” said the Lieutenant after a pause. “An officer will be there to escort you-”

Dean hung up before the man could finish, resting his hand on his dresser, and staring down at the floor in disbelief. Cas could see his lower lip quivering before Dean moved his hand to hide it.

“I’m so sorry, Dean,” whispered Cas. His eyes glistened with small tears and his voice was saturated with guilt.

Dean snapped his head up, throwing a venomous glance at Cas, who took a stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Dean. Or, at least he attempted to. 

“Get in the car, I’ll be out in a minute,” he spat, ducking out of Cas’s embrace and reaching for a pair of jeans to pull on over his boxers. 

“Dean, if I had been aware that this was supposed to happen…” said Cas, watching as Dean pulled a flannel shirt out of his overflowing hamper.

“Get in the damn car, Cas,” was the only reply he got as Dean threw some extra clothes into a beat-up duffel bag.

“Dean, please listen to me.”

No reply. Dean was too busy trying to pack as many containers of salt as he could into the bag. Cas wondered briefly why Dean kept so much salt under his bed.

“We’re talking about this in the car,” stated Cas, using his “I am an Angel of the Lord And You Must Do As I Say” tone.

“Damn right we are,” muttered Dean, finally deciding four containers of sat were enough.

Cas sighed, disappeared from the room, and rematerialized in front seat of the Impala.

 

Five minutes later Dean was driving way too fast for the small town road he lived on, and Cas was seated next to him in the front seat. Deciding that it was best to let Dean simmer until they reached the highway, where he could take his emotions out of the gas pedal, Cas kept silent as they sped around the lake Dean’s house sat on, and through the town where his auto body shop was located.

“So you knew? You knew this was going to happen?” Dean asked, pain and anger obvious, as he merged onto the nearly deserted highway. Thank god for Sunday mornings. 

“I was informed two days ago when I was summoned to heaven,” he replied. Dean still wouldn’t look at him, but shifted around in his seat.

“And you didn’t bother to do anything? One phone call, one dream visit, or some angel mojo, and Sam, Helen and Janey wouldn’t even have had to be in that house! Why didn’t you tell me that something was after them?” Dean yelled, gripping the steering wheel like his life depended on it.

“Why do you assume something was after them?” asked Cas. 

“Of course something was after them. After all Sammy and I did, we didn’t expect any peace. Sam shoved Lucifer and Michael into that godforsaken cage, someone, or something, was gonna come after him eventually!”

“There wasn’t anything you could do, Dean.”

“There’s always something I can do. Always. I’ve fought angels, demons, every monster in the book, and I’ve won. Don’t tell me I couldn’t stop this!”

“It wasn’t demons, Dean, nor any monster or angel.”

Dean scoffed, and made no other reply. 

“Something went wrong with their heater. I’m not quite sure of the mechanics of the it, human technology confuses me, but it exploded in the basement and started a fire.”

“And you didn’t do anything to stop it,” Dean snapped. 

“I tried, but I was trapped. I had only managed to break free right before I came to you,” cried Cas, turning to face Dean, his eyes wide and pleading. 

Dean didn’t say anything; he just pushed harder on the gas pedal and looked straight ahead. Cas slumped, his shoulders moving towards his head as he resumed his proper seat.

“Jane will live,” he said simply, his eyes glued to the floor of the car.

“And how do you know that?”

“I w- I just know,” Cas mumbled, turning his head just slightly towards Dean. At the same moment, Dean shifted his eyes briefly from the road to Cas. Their eyes couldn’t have met for more than a moment, but it was enough for Dean’s expression to soften slightly, and for Cas to sit up straight. 

“That hospital isn’t protected, some demon’s probably taking a nurse out for a spin. The faster we get there and line that place with salt, the better.” 

“Dean, demons didn’t do this,” replied Cas, a bit exasperated.

“Even if they didn’t they still might come for her. If she inherited any of Sam’s demon blood-“

“She’s not in any danger.”

“Cas, please humor me here.”

Cas paused, staring intently at Dean, who was back to “Avoid Eye Contact At All Costs.”

“Would you like me to go and watch her until you arrive?” Cas offered.

“Yes, Cas, that would be very helpful.” 

Dean didn’t sound thankful at all, but Cas understood that Dean was more capable of expressing anger than pain at moments like this. 

“I’ll wait for you there,” said Cas, leaning over and pressing a soft, quick kiss to Dean’s cheek, which Dean at least didn’t shy away from, before disappearing and leaving Dean to himself. 

 

As soon as Cas disappeared, Dean turned the radio up almost as loud as it would go, hoping to drown out some of the thoughts in his head and make the time go faster. Despite his best efforts, Dean kept picturing demons (still the most likely culprits, in his mind, the sons of bitches) sneaking past all the carefully crafted defenses that he and Sam had built in and around the house. 

He told the police officer that he’d be there in two hours. He started recognizing the chain restaurants and the neighborhoods that marked Sam’s corner of upper-middle class suburbia much earlier than he’d anticipated, and pulled into the parking lot of Holy Redeemer Hospital an hour and a half after he’d pulled out of his own driveway.

Almost forgetting his bag of clothes and salt, and to lock the Impala, he rushed through the front doors of the hospital, and up to the information desk, clutching a plastic bottle of holy water. The single receptionist behind the desk sat calmly, talking on the phone and slowly writing something down on a post-it note. She didn’t even look up at Dean as gripped the edge of the desk, his knuckles turning white. Finally, the woman smiled, hung up the phone, and turned to him. Dean wondered if he could get away with spraying some of the holy water on her.

“How can I help you, sir?” she asked, smiling and showing perfect white teeth. 

“I need to see my niece. Her name is Jane Winchester, her dad’s-“

“Oh, are you Dean Winchester?” asked the woman, her smile falling. 

Dean felt for the gun hidden in his coat. 

“Yes,” he said tersely.

“There’s an officer here, waiting for you. He’s right over there,” she said, pointing to a young man in a bright blue police uniform. “He’ll take you up to see your niece.”

Dean just nodded, and strode over to the officer, who barely looked like he was out of police school. He still had acne, for Christ’s sake, and was dozing off. Dean shook him awake.

“That receptionist says you can take me to my niece,” said Dean, gesturing back to the desk with his thumb.

“Uhh… Yeah. Can I see some I.D.?” the kid asked, rubbing his eyes.

Annoyed, Dean fished his (actual) driver’s license from his pocket. The kid stared at it for what seemed like hours before standing up straight and adjusting his hat.

“Mr. Winchester, I’ll escort you upstairs. She’s in the NICU. They have her in stable condition in one of those… incubators. If you’ll just follow me.”

“Just tell me which floor she’s on, I can-“ 

“I’ve been instructed to escort you as far as the NICU. After that you won’t be disturbed,” said the boy, and, looking sheepish, added “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Dean didn’t answer, but followed the kid, who walked quickly up two flights of stairs, then down some corridors to large double doors labeled “Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit.” The kid stopped, apologized again for Dean’s loss, handed him a business card with the name of his supervisor, mentioning someone would be in touch, and left. A nurse on the other side of the doors buzzed Dean in.

“Mr. Winchester?” asked the nurse. She was pretty, with light blonde hair and brown eyes. Boobs weren’t too bad, either, even under her scrubs.

“Yeah, um, where’s my niece?” he asked, fiddling his bottle of holy water.

“Just down the hall, but I need you to sign a few forms, first,” she said, setting a clipboard on the top of the desk. Dean took the opportunity to “spill” some holy water on her. 

“Oh!” she cried, holding up her wet hands. But she wasn’t burning, so Dean ruled possession out. 

“Oh my god, miss I’m sorry-“ Dean cut himself off as some tears welled up in his eyes. The nurse smiled at him sadly, then looked down at the soaked papers.

“Well, I guess I can bring you some dry copies once you see your niece. Just wash up, and then we’ll get you right into her.”

“Thank, thank you so much, um-?” stammered Dean, sobering up quickly.

“Janice,” the nurse smiled before pointing him to a small room off to the side. “Just scrub up to your elbows in there, then I’ll take you to see Jane.”

Dean did as he was told, then followed Janice down the hall.

“How’s Janey doing?” he asked.

“She’s stable, now, poor baby. It was iffy up to about an hour ago, but then she suddenly started breathing on her own again. She inhaled a lot of smoke before a neighbor got her out. I’m so sorry about your brother and his wife-“

She stopped in front of a door towards the end of the hall, opening it and walking into the room beyond.

Cas was standing over an incubator, looking quizzically down at the six-month old baby inside it. Janice, is seemed, didn’t even notice he was there. 

Dean strode past Janice and stopped beside Cas at the incubator, looking down through the clear plastic. Janey was pale, and had about a million tubes sticking out of her, but at least she was alive, and there didn’t seem to be any sign of burning. Dean breathed a sigh of relief.

“She’s sleeping right now, but she’ll be up soon. She’ll probably be hungry,” said Janice, coming up on Dean’s other side. “Such a sweet thing, isn’t she?”

Dean nodded. “Yeah, yeah she is. Can I hold her?”

Janice shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mr. Winchester, not until the docs have cleared her. You can stick your hands in through the doors, though.”

Dean sighed and nodded, and Janice left the room to go get fresh papers.

As soon as she was gone, Dean dropped his bag on the ground and opened the door on the incubator, putting his index finger into Janey’s hand. She reacted slightly to his touch, but didn’t curl her own small hand around it. He moved on and stroked her head, which already had a mess of brown hair, just like Sammy had.

Dean chocked back a sob, and turned to look at Cas.

“You got here, what, about an hour ago?” he asked, trying not to cry and failing. 

“Yes. There were more doctors hovering around her then,” said Cas, wiping one of Dean’s tears away with his thumb.

“Thank you,” whispered Dean, smiling faintly.

“Of course,” Cas whispered as Dean went back to looking at Jane. Cas gave him a few minutes before he spoke again.

“I’m so sorry about Sam and Helen. I was a called up to heaven two days ago and kept there. I couldn’t get out until the-“

“Cas, please, I’m sorry. It’s not your fault,” said Dean, withdrawing his hand from the incubator and bringing Cas into a quick, tight hug. 

“You can stop checking everyone for possession, though, even though it probably makes you feel better. I made sure the hospital was clear before you arrived,” Cas replied, keeping one hand on Dean’s arm and moving another up to his face.

“And the fire?”

“Just a faulty heating system. I checked that, too.”

The door opened, and Dean whipped around to see Nurse Janice with a clipboard full of papers. 

“I need you to fill these out. And the police called. An officer’s coming over this afternoon to talk to you, and Dr. Winchester’s sister will be here sometime soon.”

Dean took the papers and sat down to fill them out as Janice took Jane’s vitals. When she was gone, Cas took the clipboard out of Dean’s hands, and set it on a table near Dean’s chair, the paperwork completed with some of Cas’s angel ‘mojo.’

“I forgot about Helen’s family,” said Dean, slumping down in the chair.

“Did I meet them at the wedding?” asked Cas, examining the monitor that displayed Jane’s heart rate.

“Yeah… Yeah she’s got her parents and her sister, Katherine.”

“Katherine was the woman on her cell phone the entire time, correct?”

“Yeah, tall, redhead, lots of freckles, tight purple dress…”

Cas turned around and raised his eyebrows at Dean, who just shrugged, and went on talking.

“She’s a stockbroker at some fancy firm in New York. Makes a load of money out of it.”

Cas nodded, and returned to studying the monitors. Dean stood up and walked back over to the incubator, where Jane was starting to stir. He opened one of the doors and rested a finger in her hand, and she actually clutched it. 

“She doesn’t know a thing about kids, though. Gotta hope Sammy and Helen were smart and realized that,” he smiled.

“And you do know something about children?” asked Cas, joining Dean at the incubator.

“I know more than Katherine does. Would you mind calling the nurse? Janey’s waking up and she’s gonna be hungry.”

Cas fumbled with the chords, trying to find the call button.

“And make sure the nurses can see you, okay? I look like I’m talking to myself.”

Cas pressed the red call button, and Janice showed up a minute later.

“Anything the matter?” she asked, going over to Janey and checking the monitors and tubes.

“She’s waking up, and if I know anything about this girl, it’s that she’s going to be hungry,” said Dean.

Janice smiled, then looked up at Cas.

“Who’re you? I don’t remember seeing you come in?” she asked, eyes narrowing.

“I’m Dean’s partner. I arrived a few minutes after he did,” said Cas, reaching over and tapping Janice gently on the head.

“Oh, I remember now!” she exclaimed, eyes darting between Dean and Cas, a smile blooming onto her face. “I’ll go get Doctor Jacobs. She may clear her, then you can hold her while she eats.”

After another quick smile, she darted out of the room, closing the door softly behind her. Dean turned to look at Cas.

“Partners?” he asked, raising his hands slightly.

“Isn’t that the proper term for it? It may not be legal in the state of Pennsylvania, but-“

Dean chuckled, and Cas looked confused, but didn’t say anything more. Jane was fully awake now, and Dean was busy mussing with her hair. She smiled a little bit, and tried to put her hand up to touch Dean through the plastic.

“Poor kid. I wonder if she even knows her parents are dead,” whispered Dean.

Cas was saved from answering by the entrance of Dr. Jacobs and Nurse Janice. Dr. Jacobs was a short, plump woman with a red face that reminded Dean of Santa Claus. She smiled and introduced herself to Dean and Cas, shaking their hands firmly.

“Let’s see what we can do here, shall we?” she said as she hovered over Jane’s incubator. She looked at some charts, the monitors, and talked with Nurse Janice before turning back to Dean.

“Well, she’s certainly a fighter! I think we can take her off of some of these for a bit while she eats. Do either of you know how to hold her?”

“Yeah, I’ve babysat a couple times while her parents were out,” said Dean.

“Well, then. Janice, how about you take off everything but the heart and blood pressure monitors, and get this girl some breakfast? I’ll be back this afternoon to check on her.”

Janice took most of the tubes and wires out and off of Jane, and carefully placed her into Dean’s waiting arms, wrapped up in a soft blanket printed with cows and sheep. She left the room, and Dean sat down in the chair, carefully moving so as not to disturb the two sensors still attached to his niece. Cas stood behind the chair, his arms resting on the back. When Janice returned with the bottle, she handed it to Dean, stayed for a minute until she was satisfied he knew what he was doing, and then left them to check on the other babies in the NICU.

Jane was hungry, and Dean had to take the bottle out of her mouth several times in order to pace her. Maybe he imagined it, but Dean thought her cheeks got slightly rosier as she drank.

“I do not know much about human children, but she seems to be perfectly healthy,” said Cas, leaning in closer to Dean.

“She’ll pull through. She’s a Winchester,” said Dean, sticking the bottle back in Jane’s tiny mouth. 

“How did you learn how to do all of this? You’ve only babysat her three or four times.”

“When someone’s life depends on you, you learn quickly. You should know that, Cas. Plus I took care of Sammy when he was a baby, and Sam’s baby isn’t much different than Sammy was,” Dean replied quietly, clutching Jane tighter. Cas was honestly surprised that such a fragile looking thing didn’t break from the hold.

A moment later, Nurse Janice hurried in, followed by a red-headed woman in a crisp black pantsuit, who gasped as soon as she saw Cas, Dean, and Jane.

“Ohh, Jane!” she cried, voice heavy with relief.

“Hey, Katherine,” said Dean, looking up from Jane. He wasn’t exactly sure what to say. Nurse Janice backed out of the room and Katherine made her way towards the chair Dean sat in.

“Ohh, poor baby!” she whispered, stroking Jane’s head. The baby looked up at her with wide eyes. “Oh Dean, I got the call as I was on my way to work, and… I just can’t believe it. I’ve just come from the police station, and the morgue… Oh god it was terrible.”

“You’ve been to the morgue?” asked Dean.

“Yes, they wanted someone to identify the bodies. Well, identify what was left. There wasn’t much for me to go by.”

“But there are bodies?” 

“Barely, but yes. I just… Helen was the happiest I’d ever seen her… She had her dream job, her dream husband, her baby… I can’t believe she’s dead. Who’s this?” she asked, motioning towards Cas.

“You met at the wedding. This is Cas, my, uh… partner,” Dean stammered.

“Dean, I come from New York, you don’t have to be embarrassed!” Katharine cried, smiling and seizing Cas’s hand, shaking it hard. “Aren’t you two just the cutest things?”

Cas shifted on his feet uncomfortably, and Dean cleared his throat, and went back to feeding Jane. Katherine seemed to take the hint, but kept her smile on as she continued talking, and kept glancing at Dean, and then at Cas.

“Almost the entire house is leveled, too. I don’t think even the fire-proof safe survived. It probably had the will in it.”

“Do you know exactly what happened?” asked Cas, speaking for Dean, who wasn’t really listening. 

“The police explained it all to me. Apparently they turned the heater on for the first time this fall, but there was something wrong with the system, and it exploded. The fire marshal is still doing an investigation, but we might be able to sue the company that made the heater.”

Dean just nodded, taking the bottle out of Jane’s mouth and leaning her against his chest to burp her. A phone blared somewhere in the room, and Katharine started in her seat, fishing a sleek smartphone from her designer purse and silenced it.

“That was a reminder that I have a meeting with a local funeral parlor I looked up on the way here. I need to talk to you about details… Do you know whether Sam wanted to be buried or cremated? Since the will has probably been lost, we have to make the decisions. I have no idea what Helen wanted, so if you know what Sam preferred, we can go with that.”

“Sammy wanted to be cremated,” said Dean. He didn’t actually know, but considering what he’d seen people do with remains…

“Sounds good. I’ll have to run it by my parents once they get here, but they’ll hopefully agree.”

“Your parents are coming up?”

“Well, of course! They’re catching a 1:00 flight from Orlando. I’m picking them up in Philadelphia after my meeting at the funeral home.”

“That’s, that’s great,” said Dean, thinking about Jane’s doting, if aged, grandparents.

“We can have a funeral once they get up. You’re a mechanic, right? Do you need to call your boss or something? You’re going to have to take a few days off.”

“I own my own garage, but I’ll need to make a few calls. I’ll wait till Janey’s asleep again, though.”

Katharine nodded, got up, and kissed Jane on the head before she gathered her purse.

“I’ll call to check in after I’m done at the funeral parlor,” she said, nodding at Dean and reaching for Cas’s hand again. Cas took it and gave it a brief shake.

“It was so nice to see you both again, I’m sorry we had to meet like this,” she said, and left the room.

“She handles her grief by making herself busy. When her parents separated briefly when she was sixteen she talked her way into an summer internship in the stock market,” Cas stated almost as soon as Katherine was out of the room.

Dean was busy rocking Jane back to sleep, and took a minute to reply.

“I wonder how she’ll take it. When they come back, I mean.”

Cas was silent.

“Dean… Sam and Helen aren’t coming back,” Cas finally whispered, pulling a wheeled stool out from under the nearby counter and sitting down in front of Dean.

“Of course they are. If someone doesn’t fling them out of heaven or hell, wherever they ended up, we’ll find a way to get them out. I always do,” said Dean, still rocking Jane, who was falling asleep.

“Dean, I told you once you couldn’t save everyone, though you try. Sam and Helen don’t need saving. And you couldn’t try anything that wouldn’t cause severe pain for them, both mentally and physically.”

“What can be more painful than burning to death? And not being able to raise your own child?” said Dean, afraid of waking Jane if he yelled.

“I know you and Sam are used to… Resurrection, but Dean, please believe me. They’re in heaven. I made sure of it myself.”

“I have to at least look, Cas!”

“The last time Sam died, he made you promise not to look for him! Your task is to raise Janey. Can you please be satisfied with that?”

“And what happened last time Sam died? He was flung back up from Hell, and spent a whole fucking year walking around soulless!”

“Dean, would you really be so selfish as to rip him from a shared heaven with Helen?”

Dean looked struck by this, and only murmured “Winchester’s aren’t allowed to just die.” 

“No one has any use for him anymore, Dean. He’s no longer the prophesized vessel of Lucifer, Azazel has long done with him. He’s dead, Dean. Please, try and understand,” said Cas, putting a hand on Dean’s cheek.

Dean almost let himself cry, but was interrupted by the door opening. Cas pulled his hand away, and Nurse Janice walked in, followed by a grey-haired police officer.

“Morning, gentlemen,” said the officer, taking off his cap. Dean could recognize the voice that had called him earlier that morning. “Thanks, Janice. If you could leave us?” 

“Just let me put Jane back in,” she smiled, going over to Dean and coaxing him to give Jane back to her. She put the baby back in the incubator, and attached some more of the tubes and chords. The officer pulled up another stool, and sat facing Dean and Cas in silence before Janice left the room.

“Officer Michelson?” asked Dean, extending his hand. The officer shook it briefly, and looked questioningly at Cas, but didn’t extend his hand. 

“Yes,” he sighed. “I assume Ms. Kurtz has already been here?”

“Yeah, she left about half an hour ago,” said Dean, eyeing the tired-looking officer, still not entirely convinced he wasn’t a demon. 

“Then she told you what we think happened?”

“Yeah. The heater… The heater set the house on fire,” said Dean, choking on the words. He was struck suddenly by the tragic symmetry of it all.

“Yes. No evidence of foul play, as far as we can tell. Still, do you know if your brother and sister-in-law had any enemies? Just asking as part of procedure.”

Dean didn’t even know where to begin.

“None who would want to light their home on fire,” he said, settling on a half-truth.

Officer Michelson looked at him quizzically, but didn’t pursue the question further. The rest of the interview lasted about twenty minutes. Michelson filled Dean in on what particulars they had, said they were still searching for the will, but that it was probably burned, and did Dean know who had custody of Jane, and who had witnessed the will?

“Probably me, if they were smart, and probably one of Sam’s law partners,” replied Dean. 

“That’s what Ms. Kutz said. You’d probably have custody, and we’ll check with Mr. Winchester’s partners. Thank you for your help, sir. I’m sorry for your loss. Excuse me,” said Michelson, standing up and leaving without further ceremony. 

Dean was relived that the interview didn’t last longer. 

“I know what you’re thinking,” said Cas after a few moments of silence.

“And what would that be?” 

“You want to go inspect the house. You think that maybe there will be something you can find.”

“And if I do?”

Sighing heavily, Cas set a hand on Dean’s shoulder. “You shouldn’t leave Jane.”

Dean made a face, and looked over to where his niece was sleeping. Jane was breathing regularly, her little chest moving up and down in a steady rhythm. Dean’s expression softened before he turned back to Cas.

“You really don’t want me to go to that house, and I’m starting to think there’s something you don’t want me to find” he said, anger softened slightly. 

“There’s nothing for you there, Dean. Believe me when I tell you that it was just a heater explosion. If you go looking at that house, you will not be able to resist trying to find a way to resurrect Sam and Helen.”

Cas was standing up, looking Dean straight in the eye, his own eyes almost glowing. Dean thought he could make out the angel’s wings spreading out behind him. Cas looked absolutely dangerous. Even so, Dean stood up, looking his angel straight in the eye.

“You can’t stop me,” he growled, “I just need to look, Cas. I need to see my brother’s charred house, I need to see his goddamn body!” he reached for his jacket, which he had taken off earlier and set on his bag. “I’ll be back by the time Janey wakes up. Stay here and watch her,” he commanded, striding past Cas and out of the room, leaving the angel as still as a statue.

 

Dean drove as fast as he could to Sam’s house, cursing the many stoplights and minivans that slowed him down. He finally pulled into Sam’s subdivision, a community with huge houses with huge yards that all looked the same. There was also a pool. It was nice and normal, just the thing Sam had always wanted.

And for a short time, he’d had everything he wanted. A normal life. A successful law career, a wife who was beautiful and smart, a gorgeous daughter, and no hunting, absolutely no hunting. Somehow, Dean didn’t know how, he’d resisted being pulled back in. 

It was more than Dean could say for himself. Despite a knee injury that kept him from moving at anything above a power-walk, he’d done odd jobs around his community on days he didn’t work. He’d even driven days straight to help some friends with especially big jobs. 

And he couldn’t even protect his own brother.

He parked about two houses down, as close to the wreckage as he could get. What had once been Sam’s four bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath slice of suburbia stood in ruins. Dean walked up the edge of the driveway and slipped under the yellow caution tape that surrounded the property. Some of the neighbors, who were huddled in a small group near the mailbox, looked up as he did so.

“Excuse me, sir, but you can’t cross-“ a woman attempted, before Dean interrupted her.

“I’m Sam’s older brother. I just need to take a look around,” flashing a reassuring, confident smile at the woman, just as if he were on a job.

“Oh, I… Hadn’t you ought to ask a police officer?” 

As if on cue, a woman wearing a blue uniform and aviator sunglasses stepped out of a patrol car parked at the curb.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to step off the property,” she said brusquely, putting her hands on her hips.

“This is my brother’s house! I have the right to see it for myself. I have my I.D.” he said, holding it up in front of her aviators.

“Mr. Winchester,” she began after examining the I.D. “I’m very sorry, but I can’t let you past the tape. The fire department is sorting through the debris now, we’ll let you know if we find anything.”

“You need to give me five minutes. Just five minutes. I want to see if there’s anything of Janey’s left. I think it would make it easier for her if she had something familiar around in the Intensive Care Unit!”

The noises of sympathy from the group of women were too audible for Dean’s taste, and he was bombarded with questions about his niece’s condition. “Is she alright?” “How is she doing?” “How much smoke did she inhale?”

“She’s doing much better,” said Dean, turning back to the police officer, who was frowning at him.

“Five minutes. I’m timing you.”

Dean rushed across the grass to the house, meticulously going through every corner where he and Sam had put hex bags, demon traps, firearms, weapons, all types of defenses to ward off anything that may come for Sam and his family. Most had been burned in the fire, but Dean’s trained eye could tell they’d all been in place. It would have taken some serious power to even find Sam here, much less get close enough to do any damage. Hell, they’d pulled up all the floorboards to make a permanent salt circle encompassing the house. Dean pulled up what was left of the floor near some of the doors, and found the circle perfectly intact. 

He didn’t bother looking for anything for Jane. The stairs up to the second level, where she, Sam, and Helen had slept, were nigh impassable. Instead, he made his way to the basement, where Cas swore the whole thing had started. 

There were already people down there. Dean bumped into a man wearing a mask in the dimly-lit, crumbling stairwell, and was promptly escorted out of the house. The police officer was not pleased, and gave him a stern look as Dean walked up to the women by the mailbox. For a few minutes, he asked them questions as causally as he could. Did they smell sulfur, was the fire an odd color, did they see anyone suspicious? One of them, a teenager who lived across the street, had actually been the one who had rescued Jane. The only smell she reported was that of rotten eggs. Thanking her, Dean went back to his car and drove away as fast as he could.

He stopped at a strip mall about two miles from the coroner’s office. Admittedly, it was the liquor store that had first attracted him. He was nearly out of booze, at least in the Impala, and desperately needed something to take his mind off of it all, at least temporarily. However, Dean’s eye fell on the sign of the store next to it: a baby specialty store, just the kind of thing you’d find here. It even had a cutesy clever name. Giving the liquor store a last, longing glnce, Dean went inside the boutique, spent about thirty minutes picking out some onesies, a blanket, and a few toys, and tried to ignore the over-excited woman running the place. From the boutique he went to the coroner’s.

They seemed to be expecting him. A thin, tired-looking intern led him down the hall to where they were keeping Sam and Helen’s bodies, repeating the same phrase “I’m sorry for your loss,” that so many other people had said to Dean in just the last five hours. It already sounded worn out and insincere. 

When the intern pulled Sam’s body out of its refrigerated cubby, Dean couldn’t help but look away. His Sammy was barely recognizable beneath the burns, and most of the body was little more than a thin layer of charred skin on bone. Dean examined the body as closely as he could… He couldn’t find anything suspicious. He asked to see Helen, and found nothing on her besides crumbling black skin.

 

And then he was sitting on a picnic table in a park near the hospital, trying desperately to get the last few drops on whiskey out of the flask hidden in the glove compartment of his car. When he was sure no one was looking, he cried. It was a heater malfunction, there were no demons involved, and Sammy was dead. His Sammy was dead.


	2. Chapter 2

Returning to the hospital, Dean found the bathroom and ran his red, puffy eyes under stream of cold water. He didn’t want anyone’s pity, not now.

He found his was back up the NICU. Janice wasn’t working the desk, and the nurse who was gave him a sad look when Dean told her who he was and who he was here to see.

Arms freshly scrubbed and clutching the plastic bag filled with the things he’d picked up for Jane, Dean found his way back to her room and found Cas sitting in the chair, holding Janey, who was playing with the belt of his trench coat. Cas had a slight smile on his face, and looked up as Dean entered the room.

“Well, look at you. What a natural,” said Dean, putting the bag down and sitting on the stool Cas had formerly occupied.

“I have babysat with you, if you remember correctly,” said Cas, moving Jane so that she could see Dean. Dean reached out and tickled her cheek, and she gave him a huge, toothless smile. 

Dean started to cry again, turning away from Jane and putting his head in his hands. He heard Cas stand up, and felt the angel pull him up and put an arm around him.

“You went the house and the coroner’s,” stated Cas, squeezing Dean as best he could with one arm. From her perch in the other, Jane made a little cooing noise into Cas’s neck.

Dean could only nod into Cas’s shoulder, trying to swallow his tears.

“Dean, I know that… That you’ve always taken care of Sam, but there are some things even you cannot prevent, and there are things you cannot avenge.”

Cas let Dean continue to sob into his shoulder, kissing his temple and gripping him tighter. Dean’s hands were clutched in a death grip around Cas’s back, making his trench slide down a bit.

“There has to be a way-“ choked Dean between sobs.

“There isn’t. And even if there was, Sam wouldn’t want you to.”

It took a moment, but Dean nodded into Cas’s tear-soaked chest, and sank back down onto the stool, head down and arms resting on his knees. Cas lifted his head up, planted a soft kiss on Dean’s lips, and handed Janey to him. 

“Take her.”

 

Katharine arrived with her parents a couple hours later, both of whom immediately began crying when they saw Jane bundled up in Dean’s arms. For the entire week it took for the will and funeral to be sorted out, they hardly ever let her go. They were going to make a serious claim (they had already had a lawyer) for full custody of Jane, but were talked out of it by their daughter and several of Sam and Helen’s friends.

The funeral was small. There was a short service at a local church Helen and Sam had gone to on Christmas and Easter, and their ashes were scattered in a river where they used to go boating in the summer. As soon as he saw the last of the ashes dissolve in the current, Dean made his farewells. It was another thirty minutes before everyone in attendance had finished saying goodbye to Jane, but Dean finally got her strapped in her new car seat, and started the Impala. He smiled at Cas when he slid into the front seat next to him.

Dean drove up to the main road. “You’re coming?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Cas, smiling at him. Dean used the rearview mirror to look back at Jane. She was already starting to get fussy, and Dean expected a meltdown before they reached home.

“You sure? Looks like we’ve got a fit coming up.”

“Then you need all the help you can get.”

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with the idea for this when I should have been studying for a statistics test. Mostly I just needed to think of something cute and "Dean and Cas with a baby" jumped into my head.


End file.
